BBM now available to Windows Phone users

Instant messaging app available as a free download to anyone with a device running Windows Phone 8 or higher

BlackBerry has partnered with Microsoft to make its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant messaging service available on devices running Windows Phone 8 or higher.

It follows the availability of BBM as a free download on Android and iOS last October. A week after its release, it had been downloaded 20 million times on these platforms.

BBM, which has more than 85 million monthly active users globally, has been built specifically for the operating system and is available as a free download from the Windows Marketplace.

Features within the service include BBM Chats, a single destination for all chats, including groups, multi-person and one-to-one; BBM Groups to enable up to 50 people to be added to a conversation; BBM Feeds so they can see the activity of their contacts, including status and profile picture updates, and ‘Pin’ to Start, enabling users to ‘pin’ single and group chats to the start screen.

BlackBerry president of global enterprise services John Sims said the BBM app for Windows Phone “shows our commitment to supporting cross-platform capabilities.”

Microsoft vice president and general manager for developer experience Bryan Biniak added it was “intent on bringing the most popular application experiences to the Windows Phone platform,” and expected new features to roll out in the coming months.